New for Traders: ICE reducing softs trading hours

ICE plans to reduce trading hours for soft commodities in order to improve liquidity, and “in recognition that there are periods of time when there are very illiquid hours,” according to ICE Futures COOs Ben Jackson.

TriOptima announces that it successfully completed the first triReduce compression cycle for precious metals forwards and swaps, terminating $7.2 billion in notional principal outstandings. Working with six institutions to expand the range of compression activity, firms were able to reduce their gross positions in gold and silver unlocking regulatory capital and reducing collateral requirements.

CME Group announced it will reduce grain and oilseed trading hours. Pending CFTC review, trading in CBOT grain and oilseed and KCBT markets will be reduced from the current 21 hours, both on the floor and via its CME Globex electronic trading platform, for the Monday, April 8, 2013, trade date.

Borsa Italiana launched ExtraMOT PRO, the new market for corporate debt. The first securities to be traded on the new venue on March 25 will be three bonds issued by Cerved Technologies, according to Reuters.

BondDesk Group LLC and The Nasdaq OMX Group, Inc. announced today that BondDesk was chosen by the exchange group to provide the real-time pricing data needed to support the recently launched options on U.S. Treasuries trading on the NASDAQ OMX PHLX(SM) (PHLX(R)) exchange.

NYSE Liffe will list its suite of derivatives based on MSCI indices on the London Central Order Book, and will begin trading its MSCI Europe Net Total Return Index futures contract on March 1.

Germany’s upper house parliament approved regulations to curb HFT in financial markets, although the draft legislation still requires further improvement.

R.J. O’Brien & Associates announced the release of the firm’s first mobile trading application, RJO Mobile Trader (RJO MT). Available for clients of the firm and its introducing brokers who use an iPhone or Android phone, RJO Mobile Trader is a secure application accessible via Apple’s App Store and Google Play.

BondDesk Group LLC and The Nasdaq OMX Group, Inc. announced today that BondDesk was chosen by the exchange group to provide the real-time pricing data needed to support the recently launched options on U.S. Treasuries trading on the NASDAQ OMX PHLX(SM) (PHLX(R)) exchange.

ACTIV announced it is deploying a ticker plant at the new co-location facility of Tokyo Stock Exchange, wholly owned subsidiary of Japan Exchange Group.

CME will offer platinum, palladium and copper floor-traded options in its New York gold and silver pits starting April 1. This move comes after CME added platinum and palladium options onto its Globex electronic platform amidst increasing interest in these contracts.

HKEx aims to revamp its stock options market to deal with growing market demand, and the new functionality will be introduced from May 2, the Trade News reported. HKEx’s co-head of global markets Romnesh Lamba stated that “we are revamping our stock options to capture new opportunities created by regulatory changes that have increased demand for exchange-traded derivatives and central counterparty clearing.”

CME Group and MarkitSERV will collaborate to support clearing for regulated OTC FX transactions, which are currently limited to non-deliverable forwards (NDFs). CME’s FX clearing interface will be further improved in May 2013 with clearing support for cash settled forwards (NDFs for G10 currencies).

AxiCorp Financial Services Pty launched its AxiTrader USA forex service. The new service is designed to give U.S. clients access to 24-hour trading through the MetaTrader4 platform.

Managed Funds

Novus Precious Commodities, a managed futures program offered by Novus Investments LLC, announced its ranking of Top Performing Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA) in the United States for the 5 year period of 2008-2012 according to Autumn Gold.

Lillian Nicola Asset Management announced the launch of the LNAM Diversified Forex Strategy. The LNAM Diversified Forex strategy is a discretionary, directional trading methodology which enters and disposes of currency pairs within the spot forex market. The intent of the program is to capture price trends lasting anywhere from 2 weeks up to 6 months within these markets.

About the Author

Michael McFarlin joined Futures in 2010 after graduating summa cum laude from Trinity International University, where he majored in English/Communication. With the launch of the new web platform, Michael serves as web editor for the site and will continue to work on the magazine, where he focuses on the Markets and Trading 101 features. He also served as a member of the Wisconsin National Guard from 2007 to 2010. mmcfarlin@futuresmag.com